Watch the talk — it’s Pogue’s delivery that’s half the brilliance. But below, find a condensed version of the 10 tech basics everyone should know:

Use the space bar to scroll down a page. Hold the shift key and the space bar at the same time to scroll back up again.

Tab between boxes on online forms. When there’s a pop-up menu to input details of your state, type the first letter of the state to scroll through options.

To make web text larger, press control +. Mac users, make that “Command +.”

Don’t bother with punctuation on your smartphone. Hit the space bar twice for a period and the next letter will be automatically capitalized.

Hit the call button of your phone to redial the last person you spoke to. No need to go into your contacts.

Speaking of phones, carriers have keystrokes that let you bypass the “15 seconds of fricking instructions, like we haven’t had answer machines for 45 years.” Sadly, each shortcut is different. “I didn’t say these were going to be perfect,” Pogue allows.

Use Google as a dictionary by typing “define” followed with the word you want to understand. You can also use it as an FAA database for flight details.

To highlight a word, don’t drag across it with the mouse. Double click it. And don’t bother deleting text; just type.

Avoid shutter lag by half pressing down the button of your camera before you take a picture. For folks who still use cameras.

Press “b” to black out a slide (or “w” to white it out). And make sure people are paying attention to your wonderful presentation.

So, sure. These tricks help you get the most out of your technology. And what with our recent TED@250 salon on spring cleaning your life, we here at TED Towers have been thinking about neat tricks to streamline other parts of life. So below, I’ve collected some favorite tips from the TED staff for a better, easier existence. It’s true, you might not have even realized some of the things being solved were actually issues, and it’s possible you might be right in suspecting that these are the very essence of “first world problems.” But there it is and, well, here you are: 15 more life hacks you likely had no idea you needed.

“My father hangs a tennis ball from the garage ceiling so he knows exactly where to park the car so there’s ample walking room on all sides. We later saw this on TV but my father definitely invented it.” —Thu-Huong Ha.

“You can use a piece of dry spaghetti to light candles that have burned down inside their holder.” —Nick Weinberg.

“If you have kids, you know two things: 1) they fill reams of paper with “artwork;” and 2) you will be going to a lot of birthday parties. Use their “masterpieces” to wrap presents; it saves money and it’s more personalized.” —Michael McWatters.

“Empty the dishwasher bottom rack first, so that the puddles of washwater on the top of all your mugs, in the top rack, don’t drip all over your plates on the bottom rack. Don’t even MOVE the top rack until you’ve emptied the bottom rack.” —Emily McManus.

“A trick I learned from a co-worker just yesterday: Facial cleansing wipes do an amazing job of getting mud off of nice shoes.” —Kate Torgovnick.

“Lay out all your credit / bank cards from your wallet on the copy machine and email yourself scans of the front and back. That way you have all the card numbers and the 800 numbers for customer service. If your wallet gets stolen (especially when on the road) you have quick access and a way to remember which cards to cancel.” —Gwen Schroeder.

“Here’s a great one for removing oil stains from anything (including the leather seats of your parents’ car…): generously cover the stained area with flour or cornstarch. Let it sit for a while and it will miraculously soak up your oil stains.” —Roxanne Hai Lash.

“Stop using spoons for your coffee. Simply add your stuff (sugar, milk, rum, what-have-you) to your empty coffee mug, then pour your coffee in. It mixes just as well, and you don’t have a dirty spoon left over.” —Michael McWatters.

“Pour coffee into an ice tray, so you make coffee-flavored cubes that don’t water down your iced coffee.” —Nick Weinberg.

“Crack an egg on a flat surface, not on the side of a bowl. This minimizes the likelihood of pieces of shell getting into your egg.” —Becky Chung.

“Change your contact lenses on the first of every month! That way you don’t wear them for eons, which is bad for your vision and for your eyes in the longrun.” —Kate Torgovnick.

“Every time you use up a household necessity (box of spaghetti, carton of milk, bag of chocolate chips), take a photo of the empty package with your mobile phone. When you’re in the store, just review your photos to see what you need. Delete the photos as you add things to your shopping cart.” —Michael McWatters.

Thirty years ago today, Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh 128k at an Apple shareholders’ meeting. Excitement was high after the airing of the now-classic commercial “1984” during the Super Bowl two days before, and the demo — complete with the “Chariots of Fire” theme song — lived up to the hype. The unveiling was the […]

Calling all self-proclaimed tech nerds! TED has long been known for demos that set everyone in the theatre a-buzz. Here’s a look back at some memorable tech demos from TED and TEDGlobals past, to get you excited for those coming at TED2015. Hugh Herr: The new bionics that let us run, climb and dance On stage […]

#6 in the bottom list is a really bad idea. Almost all copy machines store copies of what is scanned and coppied on a hard drive. You dont want all your credit cards in there. Much better to use your phone camera.

I agree. In case of lost wallet, all one needs in credit card bank name and their 1-800-number. The bank can pull rest of the information from their database after confirming One’s personal details. Better to add the CC bank as contact in cell phone.

Aaron Freemancommented on Apr 26 2013

thebigsteezycommented on Apr 26 2013

Half pressing down on the shutter button is to tell you camera to focus, depending on your focusing settings you can then move the frame to better compose your shot but keep the subject in focus. If you don’t know this you’ve never read the instructions of any digital camera ever and should probably just use a phone.

Emailing yourself a copy of your credit cards is actually a pretty bad idea; if your email account gets compromised, so did all of your cards.

I keep mine in an encrypted KeePass file stored on Google Drive (along with my other passwords). They’re just as readily available as the scan/email method, but also have a layer of added security. Just be sure your Keepass password is different from your Google/Dropbox/Box/Cloud/etc. password.